Monday 25 July 2011

Bit O'An Update

Hello, Blawg. Seems an age since I posted properly. Now, where was I? What's been going on? Well, the main thing recently has been my good, old friend Crohn's Disease playing me up good and proper. I went to the hospital last Wednesday so the gastroenterologists could have a good look inside me and see what was going down. I got to have a look at the same time, and I must say, far from being totally disgusting, it was actually fascinating. Even I could tell where the bad bits were, so they must be pretty bad. It's a bit of a relief to be able to pin-point what's happening, to be honest. I've just been feeling generally ick since March, and, although I've taken an educated guess at what's wrong, it's nice to have it confirmed. Anyhoo, the plus side is I now have some fabbo new pills to take which are hopefully going to sort me out ASAP so I don't have to feel tired and grouchy anymore. Awesomesauce indeedy.

So, enough of the feeling ick, and on to more work. The first half of The Project has been completed, we're now on to the second, which starts in earnest tomorrow! My August is going to be much like my January: two roughs per day for the whole of the month. Going to be cream crackered, especially as I have to fit in a weekend away with Hubbo, my birthday (30!! Arghh!) trip to the theatre to see the luscious Mr. Tennant in Much Ado, another weekend away for a wedding, hospital check ups and generally trying to get out of the house before cabin fever and madness sets in. Wish me luck!

spot scan scene 3

This is Spot the ladybird, by the way. Better get back in the swing of drawing her ASAP!

Wednesday 13 July 2011

In Every Job That Must Be Done There Is An Element of Fun

Check out my Poppins-esque "carpet" bag:

bag1

I have to put "carpet" in quotation marks here as it just feels wrong to call it a "carpet" bag when it's made from quilting cotton. Although it doesn't hold quite as much as Ms. Poppins' carpet bag (hers was made of carpet, so it doesn't need the quotes, see), it's plenty roomy enough to hold my umbrella, purse, phone, knitting bag, scarf, keys and still have room for a bit more. In the pictures here the bag is empty, so it looks a little flat, but once packed with all my gubbins it looks good and plump.

bag6

The pattern is this one sold at U-Handbag, with the tubular frame (awesome invention, btw) and interfacing and what-nots all from there, too. When I ordered the pattern and all the interfacing etc, I only went and forgot to order the frame, didn't I, so had to go back and try again when my order arrived sans the most important element. Honestly.

The fantastically 50s pink and grey dog fabric is from Michael Miller, a reproduction of a classic 1950s handkerchief design by Tammis Keefe; the spotted lining fabric I'm not sure. This is why I should keep my selvedges. The colours do look a little yellow here in these photos; the pink is very vibrant and the grey nice and charcoaly in real life. I think the light was fading fast as I took these photos, or maybe it's my ancient camera which will need replacing one of these days. This, I think, is a better representation of the true colour.

bag3

It was quite easy to sew it all together, once I'd figured out which was the top and which was the bottom of the pattern! The lining shows on the outside as you turn it over to make the casing for the frame, but there's no reason why you couldn't turn it to the inside instead. The pattern called for fabric handles, but I went for these retro-tastic bamboo handles instead, just making little loops to hold them on which I just placed under the casing and sewed down in one go.

Now I've got the hang of it, I think I'll be making plenty of these for pressies, maybe even in carpet.

Saturday 2 July 2011

Friday 1 July 2011

Multicoloured Pretties

posy2

posy3

posy1

This beautiful yarn is called Posy and is from The Yarn Yard. Gawjus colours. It should knit up like the photo at the bottom here.

I am so, SO close to finishing the current part of The Project. Fingers crossed it'll be done tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest, so hopefully I can have the WHOLE weekend off, then flatten/tweak and send off the lot on Monday ready for my Tuesday deadline. See you on the other side!

Update at 8.10pm - done!